Three guests

One of my students brought three hamsters to class last week - they don't look like hamsters to me though. The class ended and she whipped them out and cuddled them as the rest of the kids gathered round. Where was she hiding the pets? In a pencil case.

Sad looking pets

I was in Homeplus yesterday and had to feel for some of the fish they were selling as pets. I saw four in these plastic cups with nowhere near enough water to move around in. Of course there were others in tanks but this I felt was unnecessarily cruel on the animals.

Neighbour departs

It would seem that out neighbours have got rid of their dog. Either that or the dog has passed away but I think the former is more likely. We suddenly noticed one day that we couldn't hear it when we expected to - i.e. all the time. I can't say I will miss it. It was no fun to be woken up early on Sundays and to put up with it's barking for eight hours or so.

Korean housing does not lend itself to noisy pets. Here, apartments or so called 'villas' are boxed together tightly and their is very little space between buildings. You can hear pretty much everything the neighbour does if they are a little loud so having a dog that yaps a lot can be a big distraction for people. I think the kids next door will miss the dog but certainly not us but I wonder what actually made them offload their pet.

Small mercies

And now the noise has stopped. So today the dog was only barking (intermittently) for six hours and not the customary Sunday figure of nine. It's 2:30pm and it's owners have come back from a day at church or whatever they've been doing.

I repeat my stance, If I had a gun I would seriously consider shooting that little fella' and then make some dog soup, or some mittens. I like dogs just not ones that wake me up at 8am on Sunday morning because its owners neglect to take it with them when they go out for long spells.

Even though being woken up so early on a weekend annoys me I still prefer it to the noise machine who used to live across from me in my previous apartment. Waking up early is not the end of the world especially if I've had a decent nights sleep - it's beats not being able to sleep at 3am.

Dog day afternoons

One of the big reasons I changed apartment some four months or so ago was for some peace and quiet. Where I live now had no people in the building other than the landlord which was a huge bonus considering my ex-neighbour was a noise machine. I'm used to noise here with fruit sellers pumping the streets with their loudspeaker at various times of the day. I live over a piano academy and I'm OK with that and have no complaints but recently a family moved next door to me.

A family with kids - I don't mind kids, I've been teaching them for over four years. But these kids make a bit of noise like kids do (do they need to shout "Mum" when the leave and come back to their apartment so often?), and now the play recorder in the day time, badly, and sometimes wake me up in the mornings, on weekends, when I need some kip. And now they have bought a dog.

If I had a gun I would shoot that dog or be tempted too (Korea has made me a little grumpy in that respect) - and it's not even making noise all day. It's not even a real dog, it's a little yappy one that serves no purpose in life other than to yap away. Reading this anyone might think that I am neither an animal lover or a dog person but I grew up with a loveable dog in the family and like them, just not small ones that look stupid. Koreans in general just don't get the idea of pets and many mistreat their animals in some way. Why would people who live in an apartment building here keep a dog? I think my neighbours are looking after theirs so that's something good. At least it's sunny outside right now and the kids are in school.

Seeing double in the classroom

Defying all expectations, the small creature (I believe it's a terrapin) that my student brought to class has survived and has now been joined by another of its species. Again, the two animals roamed about my classroom as I tried to teach, half in fear of standing on them or accidentally kicking them. The student who owns them said she's saving up for another one - we'll see if I teach her next month. Once more I found myself in disbelief at how badly the kids in class tried to treat the animal. nothing cruel, just ignorance as to how pets should be treated. The terrapins were kept in a small pencil case whilst resting. Korea cannot truly call itself a nation of animal lovers.

Classroom visitor

This is what one of my students brought to class today. Amazingly it was still alive by the time the class ended. Amazing because it was let free around the classroom and nobody squashed it and amazing too because it's owner and most Koreans don't know how to handle and treat pets! This is most definitely not a nation of animal lovers but the girl who took it to class treated it better than I had feared. Maybe we'll see this little fella again someday.